Why I Love Michelle Schaeffer

The following is a recounting of actual events as they unfolded. The names, locations and events have not been changed. This is the real thing.

Friday, 2:00 pm.
All the children were sleeping and Princess wasn’t back from school yet so I decided it was a good time to upgrade to WordPress 3.0.1.

I’d been putting it off because several years ago I tried the automatic upgrade and messed up my blog. Ever since then I’ve been terrified each time I’ve had to upgrade.

Friday, 2:07 pm.
I took the extra time to make and download a backup. Since I know my hosting company, Host Creo, does automatic backups I don’t always do one before working on the blog. Fortunately this time I did; if I hadn’t there might not be anything for you to read right now.

The first thing I did was download the older version of wp-admin to my desktop – just in case – before uploading the new version. That upload went so smoothly I forgot to download the older version of wp-includes before uploading the new version. That upload didn’t seem to go as smoothly so I refreshed my blog to make sure everything was OK.

To my horror all I saw was a white page with an error message across the top!

My heart started to pound and my mouth grew dry as I stared at the blank page. Suddenly I remembered the sweepstakes I’d posted earlier that week and my stomach dropped – WHY did I think this was a good time to upgrade?

But I had to contact Michelle and get my blog back ASAP! Frantically I considered which option would reach her quickest: email, support ticket, Facebook, or Twitter. Even though she wasn’t currently tweeting I decided to Direct Message her through Twitter.

Friday, 2:29 pm.
HappyCrazyLife: OMG HELP! I was update my blog and broke it! I did a backup and am trying to upload it but it’s just loading and loading and loading… 🙁

I told her what the error message said.

Friday, 2:38 pm.
MichelleScheffr: That error usually means not all the files got uploaded or there’s something missing from wp-config.php Which version WP…

MichelleShaeffr: do you have and which one did you upgrade to? were they both 3.0?

Michelle took a peek at whatever it is she peeks at and discovered the problem: I was at 130% disk space usage. Oops!

Friday, 2:41 pm.
HappyCrazyLife: Next time I’m going to beg, borrow or steal to have you upgrade for me – I can’t take this stress!

It’s true; I can handle poop and puke and blood without breaking a sweat but I turn into a complete basket case when I break one of my websites.

Friday, 2:43 pm.
MichelleShaeffr: Hey I PROMISE (really) in 3.0 it’s easier. And so long as there’s enough space it should go simpler. 🙂

Michelle gave me more disk space, then offered to do a restore for me. Since I was worried that I’d lose the most recent sweepstakes blog comments, she offered to upload my backup instead.

In the meantime the children woke up from their naps, needing diaper changes and snack. When I was able to find a moment I tried to email my backup file to Michelle.

Unfortunately, the right-click on my laptop doesn’t work so I couldn’t zip the file. After two failed attempts to attach the 101 MB file to email messages I admitted defeat.

Friday, 3:41 pm
HappyCrazyLife: Here’s the problem – my right-click doesn’t work so I can’t zip the file, it’s too big for email. Can you get the backup from my cpanel?

MichelleShaeffr: Yep should be able to– will try

Things got busy with daycare children leaving, my family coming home, supper plans, etc, so I had to leave my blog in Michelle’s capable hands for a couple of hours.

Friday, 5:01
MichelleShaeffr: All better now? 🙂 Do you want some help upgrading? 🙂

By this time all the daycare children had gone home. Both Michelle and I had Date Night plans but she promised to do the upgrade as soon as she could. By time I checked Saturday morning my blog had been upgraded to WordPress 3.0.1.

Words cannot express how grateful I am for Michelle!

I’ve worked with Michell for over five years and this is the sort of experience I’ve had every time I’ve contacted her. She always responds promptly and goes above and beyond the call of duty without hesitation.

She’s also been eager to help with more than hosting and broken-blog problems too Whenever I’ve struggled with a css or html problem she’s taken time to look at my code and find the errors.

Michelle’s hosting company, Host Creo, isn’t like the big companies either – it definitely offers a personal touch. One time Teacher didn’t get the email notifications that his blog domain was up for renewal. When he didn’t renew it Michelle emailed me to see if he still wanted it or not. Another time the check we sent for Valley AEYC’s hosting didn’t get to her but she kept the site up until we could send a new one. You don’t get that kind of service from GoDaddy!

Obviously I can’t speak highly enough about Michelle, or recommend her company too strongly. If you’re going to register or transfer a domain, need for website hosting or want to start your own website, check out Host Creo. I promise you won’t be sorry!

Not to mention that she homeschools her kids, has a cool nose ring, and is cute as a button.